1 62 THE LAND'S END 



He was a handsome intelligent fellow with a very 

 pleasing expression, and in a few minutes we were 

 talking and laughing like old friends. " How far is 

 it to Zennor ? " I said ; " I'm walking there." He 

 answered that it was exactly five miles from his door. 

 " Then," I returned, " I wish you could tell me 

 how to get there without going through the inter- 

 vening space." He looked strangely puzzled. " Well 



" he began, and then stopped and cast down his 



eyes. " Really I don't quite see " he started 



again, and again stopped, more puzzled than ever. 

 Then he made a desperate effort to grapple with the 

 problem. " You see, it's this way," he said ; " the 

 space is there you can't get over that, and so I can't 



quite make out how But I was sorry to see 



him distressed and quickly changed the subject, to his 

 great relief. 



I was told by the vicar of a parish I was staying in 

 that one had always to remember that the Cornish 

 people take what is said literally ; if you forget this 

 and inadvertently make use of some little figure of 

 speech so common in conversation that it is hard not 

 to use it, you are apt to get into trouble. The vicar 

 himself, after twenty years' intimate relations with his 

 parishioners, was liable to little slips of this kind, as 

 I found. One day when I was there a man from a 

 neighbouring hamlet came to the village and by 

 chance met the vicar. " Why, Mr. So-and-so," ex- 

 claimed the latter, shaking hands with him, " it's a 

 hundred years since I saw you ! " Then after a little 

 friendly talk they separated. But that unlucky phrase 



